Spaniard Alba Berdala leads her tennis team as número uno

Somewhere between picking up a racket, hours of practice, buckets of sweat and learning a new language is a young woman whose life changed after she came to play tennis at IU.

She never looked back.

A native of Spain and a senior co-captain of the tennis team, Alba Berdala could not speak any English when she stepped foot on campus. Four years later, her English has impacted her life both on the court and in class.

“Her freshman year, her English was very limited, and I think her confidence in it was limited,” IU coach Lin Loring said. “The fact that she’s fluent in English now made her a lot more vocal and gave her a lot more confidence. It’s showing both on the tennis court and academically.”

Despite hours spent weight training, conditioning and practicing, Berdala achieved a 4.0 last semester.

A lot has changed since her rookie year: She’s become more aggressive on the court, fluent in English and better at time management.

“She’s gone from freshman year, where we’d have to tell Alba to be somewhere 15 minutes early so she was on time, to now she’s the one who’s 15 minutes early,” senior Stephanie Heller said. “Alba brings a tremendous amount of heart and soul to the team.”

Throughout the past four years, Berdala has helped the team reach three NCAA tournaments. She was named to the All-Big Ten team last season, her second consecutive honor.

“She’s just been there and done that,” Loring said. “She’s a good influence for our younger players. She’s a very positive influence academically as well.”

Last year, Berdala’s hard work resulted in her holding the No. 1 singles position in every dual match except one.

“I had to be constant and try to improve every day,” Berdala said. “I had to get up and know that I had a long day in front of me, but try to do the best with it and enjoy it.”

Growing up on clay courts, which slow the speed of the ball after the bounce, Berdala had to become more aggressive on shots to stay with the faster speed of hard courts. Her repertoire of shots is still under construction, but Berdala said she has better control over her game.

“When I was a freshman, it affected me more if I had a bad match; maybe the next day I was down,” she said. “But I’m a senior, and I know we have 30 matches in one season. When I have a bad match, next day I’m just trying to work harder because I know I’m going to have a next match.”

Berdala’s past experience on the pro circuit, where she reached a No. 980 standing, helped prepare her for last year’s wins against DePaul’s No. 93 in the nation Dunja Antunovic and Kentucky’s No. 69 Sarah Woestman.

“Her strength as a player is that she’s very athletic, and she moves well,” Loring said. “As far as being a teammate, she’s very easy to get along with. She’s very understanding. It’s hard not to like Alba.”

With her final semester underway, Berdala’s outlook is enjoying her matches and being around her teammates one final time.

“I’m here because I want to,” Berdala said. “Nobody forced me. I know it’s the last time I’m going to play in my career, so I just want to have fun with it.”